Taking refuge at the Peninsula Humane Society & SPCA's shelter in San Mateo is a marmoset, one of the world's smallest primates, indigenous to the rain forests of South and Central America.

The little critter was discovered Tuesday morning in the backyard of Andrew Padilla's East Palo Alto home, where he lives with three roommates.

"I thought it was a squirrel at first, it was so small," said Padilla, a mechanical engineering student at Stanford. "He was hanging out on our fence all day long. I wanted to adopt him. He was so cute and friendly."

I used to love the Oakland Zoo, and was a member for several years, but stopped going just after their latest renovation.

It really seemed like they redesigned the zoo to be more children-oriented. I guess that's fine, but I want to examine the gibbons and read about them. That's hard to do when kids are running around screaming and parents are ramming your ankles with triple-wide strollers. I much preferred the model where they had the kiddie zoo, and the other zoo -- where kids were welcome, but it was less directly geared towards them.

I was also ticked off when they started claiming that the free ride tickets you get with your membership could not be used for the sky lift. "But I used them last month!", I would whine, but they replied "No, no, we've never accepted them". Jerks.